Miss Gertrude Ederle

Black and white photograph of Gertrude Ederle, with a man either side of her. The man to the left of the photograph is wearing a flat cap, jacket, waistcoat, trousers and shirt and tie, and has a moustache (Joe Costa, pilot). The man to the right is wearing the same clothes but with the exception of the type of hat. He is wearing a boater and glasses (her father?). Both men are smoking. Gertrude is wearing a robe, tied by a sash at the waist and it looks like she is wearing a bathing costume underneath this. She has both arms interlocked with each of the men. The photograph in the collection is only a digital copy.

Gertrude was the first woman to swim the English Channel, on the 6th of August 1926 in a new record time of 14hrs.39mins. She was the first person to swim front crawl. She had one unsuccessful swim in 1925 on August 18th. She swam for 8 hours 50mins She was trained by Jabez Wolffe. and swam Breast stroke on her first swim. On her successful swim she wore a two piece costume. and used an eight leg beat crawl. She was one of six children. She held world records for 300yds. 500yds, 880yds, 400m.440m, 500m. She played herself in the film Swim girl Swim.